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WTO Disputes

174 posts

The China Financial Information Services Dispute Is Here

The U.S./EU complaints against alleged Chinese restrictions on financial services are now official. From USTR's press release: The United States maintains that China’s restrictions and requirements limit the ability of foreign suppliers of financial information services to conduct business in China and place them at

Update on the Seals Dispute

It has been a while since we talked about the Canada-EU seals dispute at the WTO (see here, here and here). It's not clear to me where this is all going, but here is the latest: The European Commission's ambassador to Canada says efforts are being

China's Firt Defeat in the WTO

The Panel in the China - Auto Parts case has just issued the interim report. According to several sources, China lost the case. This is rather unsurprising as the legal issues involved in the case are relatively simple. The more interesting question, however, is how China would react to its

Update on the Gambling GATS XXI Arbitration

I had been hoping that the GATS Article XXI arbitration in the Gambling dispute would be as transparent as regular WTO disputes. I'm not sure that will be the case, though, as the arbitration requests have not yet been made public on the WTO's web site

Thailand - Cigarettes II?

Many of this blog's readers are probably familiar with the old GATT Thailand - Cigarettes dispute. It looks like we might be headed for a (somewhat) similar dispute at the WTO. From an article published just in advance of the WTO complaint: The Philippine government plans to elevate

More Gambling Arbitrations

We've already discussed the DSU Article 22.6 Gambling arbitration. Now it looks like we are headed for a GATS Article XXI arbitration: Antigua has asked the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to arbitrate in a dispute over gambling with the United States, its lawyer in the case said

New News on the China Financial News Dispute

As mentioned a couple months ago, some countries had expressed concerns that China was placing restrictions on foreign providers of news-related financial information services. Things seem to be heating up. As reported by the AP: The United States has told China to get serious about loosening restrictions on foreign news

Disguised Protectionism and Brazil - Tyres

Over at Eyes on Trade, Todd Tucker had this to say in reaction to the Brazil - Tyres decision: No one would say that Brazil's enviro policy was the perfect solution to the problem. But many, many environmental policies are that imperfect. Perhaps due to other influences in

The Gambling Arbitration: US$21 Million Per Year

From the Award: 6.1 For the reasons set out above, the Arbitrator determines that the annual level of nullification or impairment of benefits accuing to Antigua in this case is US$21 million and that Antigua has followed the principles and procedures of Article 22.3 of the DSU

The Zeroing Battle in the Courts

In a decision circulated today, a WTO panel says it disagrees with the Appellate Body's views on zeroing under AD Agreement Article 9.3, and decides not to follow the Appellate Body's approach. Here's an excerpt: 7.115 We respectfully disagree with the Appellate